For months, Sharks coach Todd McLellan has been saying that the only goal he set for his team was "making the tournament" -- not a division title or a conference championship.

If that's the case, mission accomplished.

San Jose clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive season Thursday night with a 6-0 rout of the Dallas Stars that also leapfrogged the Sharks ahead of the Detroit Red Wings into the second spot in the Western Conference.

On Jan. 15, the Sharks were the conference's 12th-place team. Now, they're only the second one in the West to secure a spot in the postseason.

"We had to fight for it a little bit more from the bottom of the standings," said Patrick Marleau, whose two goals on a franchise-record 12 shots on net paced the offense. "We took a different road this time compared to the last few seasons, but I think it'll make us stronger."

Four other Sharks -- Dan Boyle, Logan Couture, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Ben Eager -- provided balanced scoring, and netminder Antti Niemi made 29 saves to earn his sixth shutout of the season and the victory over a Dallas team that had won four of its previous five games at HP Pavilion.

And if the Sharks needed a reminder of their recent struggles at home against the Stars, there was a sign posted in the locker room before the game that spelled it out for them.

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Before the game, coach Todd McLellan had played down the significance of clinching a playoff spot, saying that how well his team played in their first game since Saturday night was more important.

"We were concerned about the four-day layoff, but we came out and were obviously energized, and the guys used the four days to their advantage," McLellan said.

The Sharks' domination of the game grew as it went on, as they got one goal in the first period, two in the second and three in the third.

Boyle gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 16:12, converting the rebound of a spin-a-rama shot by Joe Pavelski after Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen failed to control the puck and the Sharks defenseman chipped it past him.

San Jose doubled its lead to 2-0 on Couture's power-play goal as he gloved a deflected puck that popped into the air, dropped it to his stick and backhanded it into the net at 4:30 of the second period.

"I credit that to my baseball years growing up," said Couture of his days in London, Ontario. "I was a shortstop back home and had to quit at 14, but I always had the great glove."

The Sharks have been working to improve their struggling penalty kill, and the effort paid off in the second period as the Stars couldn't capitalize on three successive power-play attempts.

"It created momentum for us after we killed off those three," Couture said. "We kind of took control of the game."

Vlasic's 64-foot slap shot from the left point with Devin Setoguchi providing a screen made it 3-0 at 18:25 of the second period, and the score ballooned to 4-0 at 2:30 of the third when Marleau fired a wrist shot that beat Lehtonen and prompted Dallas coach Marc Crawford to insert backup goalie Andrew Raycroft for the rest of the game.

Marleau showed he doesn't play favorites about 10 minutes later when he took a pass from Joe Thornton and lifted a backhand over Raycroft to make it 5-0. Eager's goal after a nifty between-the-legs move ended the scoring at 14:18.

The Sharks said they didn't expect there to be any carry-over from the last time the teams met, a 6-3 victory that saw Dany Heatley draw a two-game suspension for elbowing Stars pest Steve Ott in the head.

Ott continued to be in the middle of things Thursday night, and when Niclas Wallin leveled him in the third period, the crowd responded with one of its loudest cheers of the night.

With the playoff spot secure, McLellan spelled out the goals going forward.

"We can't let our game slip at all," he said. "We obviously want to end the season on a good note for our game and as high up in the standings as possible for home ice. But we'll take it one game at a time."

Three hours before Thursday night's faceoff, the Sharks made the uncharacteristic move of announcing that single-game playoff tickets would go on sale Monday.

Normally, the team holds off until the postseason is a sure thing before that happens. No matter. Thursday night the players justified the faith that the business side of the franchise showed in them.

Thornton's two assists give him 997 career points as he looks to become the 77th NHL player to reach the 1,000 mark.